SHANGHAI stocks fell today after four days of gains as inflation concerns weighed on investor sentiment. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.59 percent, or 13.33 points, to 2,232.97 points. Daily turnover was 91.2 billion (US$14.7 billion).

China's Consumer Price Index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.4 percent from a year earlier in April, accelerating from a gain of 2.1 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

Yu Qiumei, a senior statistician at the bureau, said the growing inflation was largely due to an 11.2 percent rise in vegetable prices as compared with a year before.

China's Producer Price Index, a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.6 percent year-on-year to a six-month low last month, according to the bureau.

"A pick up in CPI indicates that there is little room for new easing policies and the likelihood of another interest rate cut is diminishing," said Lin Caiyi, senior economist with Guotai Junan Securities.

"Despite falling prices of bulk imports, a weaker-than-expected PPI suggests that domestic demand is weakening amid a slowing economy," Lin said.

China's top economic planner is considering deregulation in the coal industry in an effort to simplify administrative procedure, 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing unnamed sources close to the National Development and Reform Commission.

Coal producers declined on worries that the move will lower the threshold of the sector and intensify market competition. Shanxi Lu'an Environmental Energy Development Co lost 3.9 percent to 15.79 yuan. Wintime Energy Co slumped 4.4 percent to 8.19 yuan.